I went to Home Depot today and got depressed... When we first bought our home there were no plants, just crabgrass, stumps and broken glass- there were no birds, bees or bugs, just cat shit... After that first summer I decided that we would have the best garden in the neighborhood. I recall clearing 100x100 foot areas and smaller plots of grass to make way for the grand ideas that I had. I treated the soil and improved the pH. I remember being pregnant with my third, sitting out in the yard clearing the weeds so that we would have a garden after the baby was born. It felt amazing to stay outside for hours into dusk working away once the weather broke.

﻿National Women's Health Week is here! What have you done to participate? Honestly all these reminders keep me thinking about my last OB/Gyn and Well-Woman visits which were unfortunately a while ago. Time for me to get on the phone and start calling...

There is so much going on- sports and other lessons, meetings, family vacations, bills, groceries, date night, meetings with friends, etc, etc, etc... As the caretaker of the family, it's super easy to get caught up in the calendar reminders for everyone other than yourself... Not cool. A little scheduled maintenance goes a long way. It's important that moms take a second and assess their own health. Don't put it off. "Not having time to go" is not a plausible excuse.﻿

“Moooooooom she's....” I didn’t even allow the rest of the sentence to complete in my mind. I walked around the corner from the hall closet and into the bathroom. The three of my girls sat in the tub pushing each other and complaining about the millimeters that separated them under the water. As an environmentalist I bathe my kids together to conserve water…

“Wait guys, wait. Do you know what it is to have a sister?”. No one responded as if I had asked a rhetorical question. Their little eyes focused on me unimpressed and dissatisfied with my question. “It's a special gift... And each of you has two. I have two sisters. It's special to be a girl and have a sister.”. Obviously my selling points were still rejected, so I continued, “Granny only has brothers”. I went on giving examples of how people wish they had sisters. I brought up more people they knew who only had brothers. Their annoyance with each other was stronger than any argument I could make to impress upon them how awesome it was for them to have each other.

Private moments… what are they anymore? After having a child, I think all women understand that the luxury of being “alone” in the bathroom has gone out the window. You situate yourself in the tub or on the throne and you hear an all too familiar light tap on the wood frame below the door knob. You think to yourself “I could just disappear right now” or “WTF” or “I was just in front of you and you didn’t even care I was there”.

I’ve given up hope that there may ever be an opportunity for me to ever relish in any form of relief in the bathroom. I figured my bathroom visits would be as efficient as a fast food drive-thru during a busy lunch rush. In and out, nothing personal, nothing memorable. A once begrudging and woeful feeling faded into normalcy until this particular morning. I woke up at 5:30am. I laid listening to the birds singing the sun up from the east. I thought about the day, my meetings, writings that needed to occur and the laundry and other chores that I needed to accomplish that day. I also looked around me and as usual my kids had found me like zombies in the night looking for brains. Their little bodies strewn about my feet and torso as they presumably collapsed before me at an hour I could not recall happened. So I thought, 'This is your moment. This is your chance. Go take a long hot shower. It’ll be a great way to start the day.' Awesome! The kids wouldn’t be up for another hour… I was ready.